Have you seen the low interest home loans being offered by a few banks out there lately? Several months ago, the lowest home loan rate I have seen was 5.99% per year. Now, it is even lower at 5.75% (turns out 5.88% is no longer the lowest home loan rate available). Personally, I believe these are the best home loan rates I have ever seen in my lifetime. This even beats the 6.0% interest rate offered by the GSIS before.

This sounds tempting , not just for real estate investors, but also for home buyers.

But wait, before you apply for a home loan, you need to know that the low interest rate is fixed only for a year and can be quite risky…

Lower home loan rates mean…

Before I discuss the risks, let me first focus on the positive. Obviously, the biggest impact of having a low interest rate on your home loan would be a significant drop in the monthly amortization payments.

Let’s say you are going to buy a foreclosed property and the loan amount is Php2,000,000. If we use the usual 12% as the annual interest rate, at 10 years to pay, that would mean a monthly amortization of Php28, 694.18. (I used this site’s free mortgage calculator which can be found here: Real Estate Mortgage Calculator).

In contrast, if we used an interest rate of 5.88%, using the same loan parameters above, the resulting monthly amortization would be just Php22,083.76. This means a discount of Php6,610.42 per month in monthly amortization payments.

The savings in monthly payments is quite significant right? Imagine if you had several rental properties. This could translate to more positive cashflow.

In addition, I checked one of the banks that offer these low interest rates, and found out that the same rate is also applicable if one wants to refinance a home loan. I was surprised because I was expecting different home loan refinance rates.

This could be useful for real estate investors who want to get some cash out of their equity through refinancing, provided they are in good standing. I guess getting a new home loan for people with bad credit is out of the question.

Here’s the fine print

As with most things, there’s a fine print. In this case, the low interest rate is only fixed for the first year, and is subject to yearly repricing thereafter. This means that after the first year, one is at the mercy of interest rate fluctuations.

What if there was another financial crisis (knock on wood), and interest rates suddenly went up?! If that happens, there would be an increase in the interest rate to be used come repricing time, and would result in a corresponding increase in the monthly amortization payments.

By the way, some banks also offer some form of rate protection where the increase of the interest rate is limited to 2%. This is similar to the practice of Pag-IBIG. However, if one chose the option to have the interest rate fixed for only a year, it’s possible that the interest rate will be increased yearly right?

Scenarios

If you are a real estate investor and have rental properties purchased through home loans, the increase in monthly amortization payments can turn a nice positive cashflow generating property into one that is negatively geared, which is like a money pit. It can swallow up all of your money.

Raising rents can only work up to a certain extent and may not be enough, especially if a property is covered by the rent control law. Besides, market forces dictate rental rates and increasing it might drive tenants away, making the situation worse.

The same applies to non-investors. Unless one’s source of income, which is usually just one’s salary, more than covers any sudden increase in the monthly amortization payments, he is in danger of defaulting on his mortgage loan payments. A salary increase would help, but usually the opposite happens.

This can even lead to foreclosure down the road. In such harsh economic conditions during a financial crisis, my tips to avoid foreclosure may offer little help.

Nevertheless, I believe that the scenarios described above can be easily avoided by simply going for fixed interest rates.

Why go for fixed interest rates?

I believe that the proactive thing to do would be to go for fixed interest rates for the longest term possible. This eliminates the risk of being subject to sudden interest rate fluctuations, all throughout the loan term.

Sure, the interest rates usually become higher, the longer they are fixed, but at least, you are protected just in case prevailing interest rates shoot up due to economic conditions.

Anyway, If you are really concerned about the higher fixed interest rates for longer terms, my suggestion would be to have something in the middle, let’s say 5 years for example, provided you are prepared to have the loan fully paid before the end of the 5th year, if needed.

This seems to be a more balanced approach as you still get protection, but interest rate at the start should not be too high.

What the heck, if you believe you can pay in full for a property in one year, then by all means, go for the lowest home loan rate you can find, even if it is just fixed for a year.

My point is simple, I suggest going for a fixed interest rate, with the longest term possible, so that at the very least, you will have enough time to pay-off the home loan to avoid any repricing, if interest rates really do go up.

This will help minimize your risks, and have peace of mind, which I believe is priceless.

Happy investing!

To our success and financial freedom!

Jay Castillo
Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Follow me in Twitter: http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Find us in Facebook: Foreclosure Investing Philippines facebook page

Text by Jay Castillo and Cherry Castillo. Copyright © 2011 All rights reserved.

PS. I will be a facilitator at the Think Rich Pinoy Seminar on February 26, 2011, and I hope to see you there. Click here to learn more about the seminar!

PPS. Don’t be the last to know, subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. Mailbox getting full? Subscribe through my RSS Feed instead!

Low home loan rates – what you need to know before it’s too late is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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*I have turned this into a sticky post for new visitors.

I was supposed to finish writing my “Goodbye and thank you to 2010, Hello 2011…” post, but ended up with this list of the best “How to” articles from Foreclosure Investing Philippines during the year that passed. After all, FIP is so much more than just listings of foreclosed properties and public auctions. I believe you also need to know how to invest in foreclosed properties and bank acquired assets.

I hope this list will help you get started on the right foot. Just in time for the new year right?!

Of course I won’t let 2010 go without counting the blessings that came my way, but for now, here’s a list of “How to” articles from 2010 that can help you get started with real estate investing in 2011:

How to keep the passion burning for real estate investing – 2011 has just started and I know you are all fired up and ready to take on just about anything to succeed with real estate investing. Even with a good start, challenges and problems will surely try to block your path to financial freedom, and how does one “Stay hungry and foolish”? This post aims to help take care of that.

How to turn listings of foreclosed properties into opportunities – So you’ve played cashflow 101 and you got out of the rat race by buying passive income generating real estate, including some foreclosed properties. However, one may realize that buying properties in the game is not as easy in real life. Read this to learn how to start finding those “opportunity cards” for real inside listings of foreclosed properties.

How passive income through real estate investing can lead to financial freedom – What exactly is passive income? Why do you need to start getting those passive income deals to get out of the rat race? Just how does one get out of the rat race faster? Read this to find out.

How to be a proactive real estate investor – We always hear people say “I can’t do this and I can’t do that because of this and that…I have no choice.”. Most of the time, we talk like this to ourselves, unless we begin to be proactive. This article tries to convince us to start believing that we always have a choice.

Are foreclosed properties good deals? – If you think that just because a property is a foreclosed property, then it is automatically a good buy, think again! Before you get started with investing in foreclosed properties, find out why it is often said that real estate investing is a numbers game.

4 reasons why we need to be financially literate real estate investors – More money is never the solution if the problem is lack of financial literacy. Learn how having financial literacy is the only way to get started with real estate investing, and how it also prevents you from becoming like most lotto winners, who lose their money fast.

How to compute for the ARV of foreclosed properties – Okay, so you found a foreclosed property and you want to make an offer, or you want to bid for it. But before anything else, you need to determine what it could be worth, this would help you calculate this.

How to compute for the Maximum Allowable Offer or MAO for foreclosed properties – After computing for a property ‘s “value”, you also need to determine at what maximum price you can pay for it, leaving enough room for you to make enough money and be happy.

How to compute for the projected costs for acquiring, carrying, and selling a property – But wait, how does one know that the estimated costs for buying and holding a property are accurate? One needs to make sure just how much it would cost to buy a property and also the related costs of holding it for the projected amount of time needed to sell it.

How to compute for Net Operating Income or NOI and find good investment properties – Rental properties are not all profit, there are operating expenses that will be incurred, and you need to consider these to get the NOI, and see if a property can really generate positive cashflow and passive income.

Instant gratification versus delayed gratification – Want to learn how practicing a little delayed gratification can help you get started with real estate investing? Read this!

How to find opportunities and get started with real estate investing – If you really want to get started with real estate investing, you need to learn how to see those opportunities and grab them. They can lead to a series of advantages and lead to even more opportunities.

2010 has passed and lessons have been learned, but I would like to say thank you to 2010 one last time.

Happy Investing!

Jay Castillo

Real Estate Investor

PRC Real Estate Broker Registration No. 3194
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Follow me in Twitter: http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Find us in Facebook: Foreclosure Investing Philippines Facebook Page

Text by Jay Castillo and Cherry Castillo. Copyright © 2011 All rights reserved.

PS. Don’t be the last to know, subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. Mailbox getting full? Subscribe through my RSS Feed instead.

FIP’s best of 2010 to help you get started in 2011 is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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After inspecting a bunch of foreclosed properties recently, I was to drop-off my real estate broker at her house. Her grandson who was around 7 years old, approached us after I parked, while we were still inside my car.

He signaled me to open the window, which I did, and he noticed I was using my HTC Touch Pro 2 while I was texting someone and he said “Wow, you have a nice phone! Are you rich?”.

My HTC Touch Pro 2 with my property analyzer worksheet loaded

Both my broker and I answered without hesitation “Yes of course, we are rich!”. (If someone asks you the same question, you should always say yes, and let the Law of Attraction do its magic!)

He then sarcastically said “Yeah, you must be rich, it’s probably the reason why you have such an expensive car”. Take note that my car is an SUB… a subcompact! It’s a turbo-diesel Hyundai Getz.

The 2008 Hyundai Getz. My car is the CRDI variant

I said “Well, because this was the car I bought, I was able to buy three houses the following year…”.

He then said to his grandma “Lola, let’s buy Jollibee…”.

I guess my answer did not sink in and he was more interested with satisfying his craving for burgers and fries, which is totally understandable for a kid his age.

In retrospect, I believe that my broker’s grandson was just frank enough to ask me the very same question which I believe some people who see my car dare not ask me, why did I buy my car, when I could have bought a more expensive or bigger one?

When I availed of the car plan offered at the company I used to work for way back in 2008, I could have bought the newly released 8th generation of the Honda Civic or a Ford Focus. I knew some people at the office back then had this question in mind, according to some of my close friends.

Why did I buy my car?

One of the reasons why I bought a diesel powered subcompact was to manage my cashflow, which in turn helped me buy three foreclosed properties the following year. Hard to believe right?

Aside from the lower monthly amortizations, which was less than two-thirds of what I would have paid for on a monthly basis if I had bought a Civic, my monthly expenses for diesel fuel was just less than Php2,000 per month. Compare that to my wife’s 1998 Honda Civic for which I had to spend more than Php4,000 for unleaded fuel per month.

Maintenance for my new car was also easy on the pocket, at about Php6,000 per quarter. Our old car needed about Php25,000 per quarter on the average for maintenance and repairs (new problems were always being found that needed to be repaired… that sucked big time!). By the way, I forgot to mention that my car is covered by a 5 year warranty… nice!

It’s hard to believe but the net effect of my choice of buying my car was it lowered my monthly expenses by about Php5,000 per month, as compared to buying a more expensive car, or maintaining the old car we had.

Php5,000 per month may not sound much but that is already comparable to the positive cashflow of one rental property. It is also just about equal to 10% of my take home pay back then, which meant I already had enough to fulfill my target of setting aside at least 10% of my total monthly income for my Financial Freedom Account or FFA.

Instead of draining my savings, buying a car actually helped me increase my savings by lowering my expenses. Who wouldn’t want to have that?!

Delayed gratification

Even if I could have bought a more expensive car back then, I chose not to do so, and bought a small car instead.  I simply needed a car that can take me and my family safely and comfortably from point A to point B (It did just that when we drove from Antipolo to Baguio and back to Mandaluyong with just 1 full tank of diesel back in 2008).

I believe what I did was an example of delayed gratification. My logic here was I can buy a small car for now, and it would not hinder my goal to build my Financial Freedom Account, which I will use to buy real assets that put cash in my pocket.

After I buy real assets first, I can then use any excess cashflow or money from capital gains to buy a bigger or more expensive car, if I wanted to. So far I am very happy with my Getz.

But wait, you might be thinking I did not practice delayed gratification when I bought my mobile phone. Not really, the HTC Touch Pro 2 was released more than a year ago and the one I bought last October was a second hand unit, although it was good as new. A brand new unit at malls would retail for around Php35,000 but I bought mine for less than a third of  the retail price, from a reputable seller at tipidcp.com.

Instant gratification

Imagine if I had bought a more expensive car first. That would have resulted in little or no money left for me to invest in real estate. I probably would not have been able to buy the three foreclosed properties I acquired last 2009.

Who knows, maybe I would not have been able to save enough money for my emergency fund, and I would not have had the courage to resign and get out of the rat race.

Buy assets first, liabilities second

Another great example of delayed gratification would be to buy assets first, liabilities second, just like what Robert Kiyosaki mentioned in the video below.

He bought a Porsche by first investing in a storage facility, and then he used the cashflow it generated to pay for the Porsche. The cashflow remained even after the Porsche was already fully paid. Now that’s a smart way to buy a liability!

Let me see… a Hyundai Tucson, a  Ford Fiesta, or even a Toyota Prius would be nice. I guess I should be asking myself  “How many good real estate deals do I need to buy first?”. What do you think?

Happy investing!

To our success and financial freedom!

Jay Castillo
Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Follow me in Twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Find us in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines facebook page

Text by Jay Castillo and Cherry Castillo. Copyright © 2010 All rights reserved.

PS. Attend Larry Gamboa‘s Think Rich Pinoy Seminar on December 4, 2010. Click here now to grab your seats now! or download more information about the Think Rich Pinoy Seminar (please feel free to forward to your friends).

PPS. Don’t be the last to know, subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. Mailbox getting full? Subscribe through my RSS Feed instead!

Instant gratification versus delayed gratification is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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In my previous posts about Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO), After Repair Value (ARV), and Cost Factor (CF), we determined these numbers for properties that we intended to flip for a profit. This time around let’s determine another number that is more applicable to income generating properties like multi-door apartments, which are obviously better kept for cashflow and passive income. This number is Net Operating Income or NOI. What exactly is NOI, and why is it important? Please read on to find out.

What is Net Operating Income or NOI?

NOI is basically what remains of the actual or projected annual income of a property, after all operating expenses have been deducted. Operating expenses include real property taxes, property insurance, property management, maintenance reserves, vacancy rates , collection losses, etc.

Costs related to debt servicing (in case a property was purchased through financing), are not yet deducted, when calculating for NOI. Furthermore, NOI can be before or after taxes. For this post, we will be computing for the NOI before income taxes are deducted.

Sample income generating property: A 10-door apartment

Example: You have found a promising 10-door apartment in Marikina City and the current rental income per unit is Php5,000. Determine the NOI. (Keep in mind that this is just a hypothetical property which shall be used to better illustrate how we to determine NOI)

Assumptions: Let’s assume that Real Property Taxes would amount to Php30,000 per year, property insurance would be around Php12,000/year, and property management would be Php5,000/month or Php60,000/year. The property also has a vacancy rate of 15%, and you also set aside Php5,000/mo for your maintenance reserves. Lastly, let us also make an assumption that there will be a collection loss of 5%, meaning you won’t be able to collect rents from your tenants 5% of the time (these are caused by your tenants from hell).

The NOI would then be as follows:

Why do we need to compute for NOI?

Let me give you 3 good reasons why you need NOI:

1. You need the NOI to determine if a property that is being offered to you as a “good investment” is really a good investment. Most people offer income generating properties without considering operating expenses. If you compute for the the NOI, you will surely know if a property will really be a worthy investment. If you know the NOI, and you are going to buy a property through bank financing, you can easily determine the cashflow it can generate. In our example above, if you bought it through bank financing and your monthly amortization is less than Php26,500/month, then you can already say that this is a self-liquidating property.
2. You need the NOI to determine a property’s cash-on-cash return. This gives you an objective way to compare your projected returns from an income generating property with other investments like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. This will be tackled in my next post which should be ready by next week.
3. You need the NOI, along with the capitalization rate or cap rate to determine a property’s market value using the income method. For income generating properties, the income method is the recommended way to calculate for the property’s market value or After Repair Value. This will be tackled after my post on how to determine the cash-on-cash return. Please watch for it.

Things to remember about NOI

Obviously, the accuracy of the NOI greatly depends on the accuracy of the rental income and operating expenses that you will use. My advice is to use actual values as much as possible.

It would be easy to get actual rental rates by going around the immediate vicinity of the property you are evaluating.

Real property taxes can be checked by getting a copy of a property’s statement of account or SOA for real property taxes at the office of the City/Municipal Assessor’s office or Treasurer’s office.

For maintenance reserves, I have read a lot of books that say setting aside 10% of the gross rent would be good enough, but it still depends on you. Depending on the age of a property, maintenance reserves might need to be bigger, especially if repairs and maintenance needs to be done sooner.

I suppose estimates for vacancy rates, and collection losses, can come from landlords or property managers that operate in the same area. By the way, more than 2 years ago, I asked around and found out that during that time, property managers usually charge anywhere between 8% to 15% of gross rents. I’m not sure if these figures are still accurate so I will have to ask around again.

If you are evaluating a rental property, make sure you include NOI as one of the numbers you need to determine as part of due diligence. Remember, without NOI, you really won’t know for sure if you will have any positive cashflow/passive income, and it will help you stay away from properties that are really just money pits.

Happy investing!

To our success and financial freedom!

Jay Castillo
Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Follow me in Twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Find us in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines facebook page

Text by Jay Castillo and Cherry Castillo. Copyright © 2010 All rights reserved.

PS. Here’s great news! Trace has a Mystery Speaker in his upcoming TRQ 2.0 seminar who will talk about property management. Click here http://bit.ly/attendtrq2 to sign up if you have not done so already. As of October 18, 2010, only 33 seats are left for TRQ 2.0! Click here NOW to register before seats run out!

PPS. Don’t be the last to know, subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. Inbox getting full? Subscribe through my RSS Feed instead!

How to compute for Net Operating Income or NOI and find good investment properties is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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Welcome to the fifth and last part of this series on the 3 types of income one can get through real estate investing. Before you begin reading this article, I recommend you review the first four parts:

How to get portfolio income through real estate investing

Earned income through real estate investing

Passive income through real estate investing – the path to financial freedom(Part 1)

How passive income through real estate investing can lead to financial freedom(Part 2)

In this series finale, let me share some final words and how one can use all three types of income to achieve financial freedom. Here goes…

Recap and some afterthoughts…

Portfolio Income

In a nutshell, portfolio income in real estate is basically income on paper in the form of equity. You still need to either sell or refinance a property to make use of your equity. Any property bought below market value should have a big potential for a gain in equity, if it really was bought below market value.

Portfolio income may boost one’s net worth and may give one bragging rights, but as Rich Dad would put it, someone’s net worth is often “worth less” than they think. In other words, if one’s equity cannot be turned into cash, or if the property cannot generate any positive cashflow, then those properties are “worth less” as they really are not  assets that put money in your pocket but are rather liabilities that take money away from your pocket.

Speaking of paper assets, one may soon be able to invest in a Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT here in the Philippines, which I believe is a form of paper asset. More information about REIT in the Philippines can be found here: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) – The next big thing in real estate

Earned income

Earned income that one can gain through capital gains, and commissions(now referred to as professional fees because of the RESA LAW) is a relatively quicker way of earning from real estate investing, but should not be looked at as a means to get rich quick.

I believe that the earned income one can get through capital gains from flipping properties should be used to acquire passive income generating assets later on.

Although it may appear that earned income through flipping properties received a bashing from me when I compared it to the rat race, make no mistake, I still believe that we still need to flip properties for capital gains as it is a great way to build capital. This can then be used later on to buy bigger deals that can produce bigger positive cashflow, much like lesson #2 in the Top 7 lessons I learned from playing Rich Dad’s Cashflow 101 game.

Passive income

Passive income, considered by many as the holy grail of real estate investing, can really help one become financially free, but there are a lot of things one should remember when investing for passive income. Let me summarize them below.

1. Proper pre-screening of tenants is needed to avoid “tenants from hell”. Failure to do this can spell disaster.
2. Rental properties require competent property management and maintenance.
3. It is the hardest real estate investing technique to do because finding properties that can generate positive cashflow is more difficult than finding properties that can be flipped for a profit, and this applies whether you buy foreclosed properties from banks, or those that are for sale by owners or FSBO’s.
4. It may sound simple, but is definitely not easy.
5. Although it may not be easy, it is easier than most people think. It is definitely easier than spending most of your life stuck in the rat race as an employee.
6. Negatively geared rental properties can become positively geared eventually through rental escalation(Thanks Gio for reminding me about this through your comment), provided the property is in a good location. Of course, it would be ideal to have a rental property produce positive cashflow from the very start.

Which investing strategy should you use?

Do you invest for equity and build you net worth, or for capital gains through flipping (wholesaling and retailing), or for passive income by acquiring rental properties? If you ask me, I believe it would be better to combine all of them! let me try to explain as follows:

1. “Make money when you buy, not when you sell…”

In other words, make sure you buy properties below market value. How much below market value? That would depend on your profit targets but a safe target would be to acquire properties between 40% to 50% below market value. In effect, that discount would translate to a bigger potential for equity gain. This would help ensure that a deal will really be profitable, provided you were able to arrive at a fairly accurate estimate of a property’s market value.

2. Raise capital through earned income/capital gains

As mentioned earlier in this post, one can potentially raise capital faster by flipping properties that are bought at a price below market value for capital gains, or even through the accumulation of “professional fees” by acting as a real estate broker or agent. These can then be used later on to buy bigger deals that can produce bigger positive cashflow.

3. Use the capital to acquire passive income generating assets

The capital that can be raised through flipping properties can then be used to acquire income generating rental properties.

There you have it folks…

I hope you have enjoyed reading this series as much as I enjoyed writing it.  I would like to believe that I have this burning passion for real estate investing and I wish that somehow, I was able to share this passion of mine through this post. Feel free to let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

Let me leave you all with a quote from Herbert Spencer, which I often hear from Ebb, a teammate of mine in the RYP team:

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

Herbert Spencer-English philosopher (1820 – 1903)

To our success and financial freedom!

Jay Castillo

Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Follow me in Twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Find us in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines facebook page

Text by Jay Castillo and Cherry Castillo. Copyright © 2010 All rights reserved.

PS. Are you a new visitor? Click here NOW to start learning more about foreclosure investing in the Philippines

PPPS. Don’t be the last to know, subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. Inbox getting full? Subscribe through my RSS Feed instead!

3 types of income in real estate investing and which strategy to use is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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Welcome to the third part of this series on the 3 types of income one can get through real estate investing. This was supposed to be the third and last part which is about passive income, but it has turned out to be a huge article in itself (more than 4000 words) , which is why I will have to split it in two. This will be the first half .

Before you begin reading this article, I recommend you review the first two parts about portfolio income and earned income:

How to get portfolio income through real estate investing

Earned income through real estate investing

Next we continue with passive income…

What is passive income?

Wikipedia defines passive income as income from “trade or business activities in which you do not materially participate.” Furthermore, the IRS website defines that “in general, all rental activities are passive activities, even if you do materially participate. You materially participate in an activity if you are involved in the operation of the activity on a regular, continuous, and substantial basis.” These may sound complicated so I would rather stick to the simpler definition that passive income is income that comes in consistently without having to do much physical work.

Examples of passive income are dividends from paper assets like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, interest income from certificates of deposits, mortgages, income from advertisements  on the internet, income from a business where the business owner need not work in the business, residual income from royalties from the sale or use of intellectual property and multilevel marketing activities, and of course, rental income from the leasing of real estate.

Passive income from real estate investing

In real estate, you get passive income by investing for cashflow. This is when you focus on buying properties whose rental income exceeds all expenses, including taxes, and any payments for loans, if any. Basically, the monthly cashflow would be the monthly rental income less monthly expenses less the monthly amortization you pay to the bank if the property was bought through financing.

Using our previous example again, where I bought a foreclosed property for Php1Million by putting down 20% downpayment or Php200,000, with a remaining  loan principal balance of 80% or Php800,000, let’s assume the balance is payable in 20 years at 8.5% annual interest rate(this is the current rate for Pag-IBIG for a loan of Php800,000).

This results in a monthly amortization of Php6,942.58/month( You can verify this by using our mortgage calculator)

For this example, lets also assume that my monthly expenses as the landlord are monthly homeowners association or condo dues, maintenance, property management, real property taxes(I just divide the annual real property tax by 12 to arrive at monthly figures), maintenance reserves, etc. all add up to about Php4,000/month and the property can be rented out at Php15,000 per month.

My monthly cashflow for the example above would then be as follows:

Monthly Cashflow = Monthly Rent – Monthly Expenses – Monthly amortization

=Php15,000 – Php4,000 –  Php6,942.58

=Php4,057.42/month

Do take note that the cashflow figure we arrived at above is before taxes, more on the applicable taxes later.

Examples of rental income

Rental income can come from the leasing of houses, lots, house and lots, townhouses, condominiums, parking slots, apartments, buildings, hotels, office-space, space used for cell-sites, billboards, or just about any residential or commercial space. Did I forget any?

One can even earn passive income by having a real estate business, more on this later.

Advantages of passive income from real estate

Least taxed – Passive income in the form of rentals is the least taxed among the types of income one can get through real estate investing. Remember, income in the form of capital gains are taxed at a rate of 6%, while earned income is taxed up to a high of 32% in the form of income tax.

For rental income, the taxes range from a low of 3% percentage tax to a high of 12% VAT. Please take note that percentage tax and VAT are mutually exclusive, you pay one or the other, depending on which is applicable.

The lease of residential units where the monthly rental per unit exceeds Ten Thousand Pesos (P10,000.00) but the aggregate of such rentals during the year do not exceed One Million Five Hundred Pesos (P1,500,000.00) are exempt from VAT, and shall be subjected to three percent (3%) percentage tax.

It follows that the 12% VAT applies to the lease of other properties not covered by the statement above. Please refer to this article:  Save Money On Taxes: Exemptions From VAT On The Sale And Lease Of Real Estate for more information and a sample computation.

Of course, income tax is still applicable. The good news is you can still lower your taxable income through allowable deductions, thereby lessening the payable income tax. My wife will create a more detailed article about this in the future. I will force her to do this if needed.

Income comes in without the need to sell the property – An obvious advantage with passive income through rentals is you have income coming even if you don’t sell the property. If you don’t have to sell the property, you obviously do not need to pay any of the major taxes like Capital Gains Tax (CGT) for capital assets or Creditable Withholding Tax (CWT) for ordinary assets, whichever is applicable.

Less affected by a recession or financial crisis (at least for residential properties) – If you invest for passive income, I believe that you are less affected when a recession or financial crisis happens, unlike flippers who might get devastated because they will no longer be able to sell their properties at their desired selling prices as property values  plummet.

Even if flippers rented out the properties they could not sell, most may still end up with negative cashflow because the cashflow was not considered at the very beginning. It is easier to find a property that can be flipped for a profit but has negative cashflow, than a property that has both positive cashflow, and can be flipped for a profit. If that were the case however, I would think twice before I sell a passive income generating property as it is like a goose that lays golden eggs.

Without the need to sell a property, investing for cashflow is simply less vulnerable and less risky, in my opinion.

In addition, I believe that demand for residential properties that are for rent would still be pretty high, as people still need a place to live in, even if there was a recession or financial crisis. It would be logical to conclude that the people who would forego buying their own homes would  just rent. On the other hand, commercial properties that are for rent would face less demand in times of a recession or financial crisis and would most probably be greatly affected.

Provides a consistent stream of income – Passive income in the form of rentals of real estate provides a reliable and consistent income stream that can really replace a person’s earned income that comes from having a job.

Money works for you - We often hear about the sayings “instead of working hard, we should work smart” and “instead of working hard for money, money should work for you” and passive income from real estate fits the bill. By finding a good rental property, the work is front-loaded, and the rest is just maintenance, and yet the money just flows into your pocket. Now that’s working smart!

You get to enjoy the fruits of property ownership - As you remain as the owner of the property, you also get to enjoy the fruits of ownership like gaining equity as time passes where part of your rental income is paying off your loan, if any, and you also have the benefit of any future appreciation of the property, if you do decide to sell or refinance the property down the road.

The disadvantages of investing for cashflow

Smaller income as compared to capital gains - The example above illustrates that the passive income we can get from a rental property looks small compared to the capital gains that we can get through flipping. Php4,057.41/month versus Php100,000/property(assuming you can really flip at least 1 property per month with a net profit of Php100,000). However, I still prefer rental income because in the long run it will help you get out of the rat race, more on this later.

Furthermore, you can have bigger passive income by focusing on properties that command higher rental rates, decreasing expenses through better and more efficient property management and maintenance, increasing the loan payment term to lower the monthly amortizations, etc. You can even go for a rent-to-own agreement where the option to own the property justifies higher monthly payments, resulting in bigger positive cashflow.

Requires property management – Property management is not really a problem if you have 1 to 4 rental properties. Beyond that, property management would probably feel like you you are back in the rat race , another 9 to 5 existence where the only difference is you own your job.  This is just my opinion. Again, you can eliminate this by going for a rent-to-own scheme as the tenant-buyer will the one to manage the property as the property owner.

It is harder to find properties that can generate positive cashflow – Like what I mentioned earlier, It is easier to find a property that can be flipped for a profit but has negative cashflow, than a property that has positive cashflow. If you are consistently doing the numbers with the free foreclosed listings that you get from foreclosurephilippines.com, you would know what I am talking about. If you are not doing the numbers, what are you waiting for, Christmas?! Knowledge gained left unused is knowledge wasted!

Rent control – The coverage of the Rent control act of 2009 include all residential units in the National Capital Region and other highly urbanized cities, with a monthly rent for each of which ranges from One peso (Php1.00) to Ten thousand pesos (Php10,000.00) and all residential units in all other areas, the total monthly rent for each of which ranges from One peso (Php1.00) to Five thousand   pesos (P5,000.00).

One can avoid this by investing only in properties that command a rent higher than Php10,000, although this could mean VAT becomes applicable. Another option to avoid rent control is to use a rent-to-own agreement, although in effect you are already selling the property, even if you still get positive cashflow for the duration of the rent-to-own agreement.

You get all the expenses related to property ownership – Expenses like maintenance, cost for fire and acts of nature insurance, real property tax, property management, and other expenses that cannot be passed on to your tenants, remain to be your responsibility as the property owner, unless you enter into a rent-to-own agreement. Monthly dues, utilities, and other miscellaneous expenses can be passed on to the tenant.

You might encounter tenants from hell – Tenants from hell are probably the most dreaded thing that would-be landlords are afraid of. Yes, it happens to the best of us, it even happened to Larry Gamboa, which he shared during the recent Think Rich Pinoy Seminar. The only way to get around this is to pre-qualify your would-be tenants or tenant-buyers.

Things to remember about passive income from real estate investing

Each passive income generating property is like a goose that lays golden eggs – If you remember Aesop’s fable “The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs”, the goose laid a golden egg consistently each and every day. A rental property is just like that as it lays “golden eggs” in the form of passive income every month.

Passive income generating real estate still needs maintenance and some work; you still need to take care of your “goose”

• You need to have property management which can be done by you if you have 4 rental properties or less, or you can just outsource it to other competent people who can do it better than you if you already have more than 4 properties. Take note that the 4 properties is just my own estimate. You may even start outsourcing property management with your first rental property, as this will make it truly passive, and avoid those things that go with property management that might turn you off, like fixing toilets at 3am.
• If you don’t take care of your property and your tenants, either the golden eggs will become smaller and smaller as expenses begin to pile up because of deferred maintenance that eventually catches up with you, or the eggs will just stop when the goose dies as you lose your tenants or when your property becomes unlivable, whichever comes first.

Don’t sell the goose – If you sell your property that lays “golden eggs”, then you will obviously have no more eggs, just like when the farmer decided to kill the goose to get all the golden eggs inside of it. But unlike the farmer who found no golden eggs inside the goose when he killed it, you might end up with a big golden egg in the form of capital gains if you sold the property, but that would be the last golden egg, and you will have to find another goose. It is always tempting to make a lot of money quickly. Don’t be too greedy!

How to turn earned income to passive income – There are actually ways to convert earned income into passive income. Here are a few of my ideas:

A. Treat real estate investing as a business – The key is to set it up like a business where you are the business owner who works on the business, and not in the business. You need to systematize your real estate business and delegate as much as possible, among a number of things, that would help make a business like this succeed, and this will turn you into a true business owner, not just someone who owns your job.

It would be like setting up your real estate business to function like it was a franchise of McDonald’s or Jollibee, where the least skilled can do most of the work, which lets you, the business owner, work on the business. Some aspects can even be outsourced like internet marketing for example, which can go for as little as USD2.00/hour, right here in the Philippines, as mentioned here by Yaro Starak. A working system used for such a real estate business can be easily replicated and can even be turned into a turnkey operation like a franchise, as described in the book “The E-myth revisited” by Michael Gerber. I believe this is also Larry Gamboa‘s goal when he started his Think Rich Pinoy Franchise.

B. Setup a passive “residual” income stream – Another way to turn earned income into passive “residual” income would be to set it up like a legitimate multi-level-marketing (MLM) company. For real estate brokerage, what if it was setup in such a way that real estate agents are assigned the bulk of the offline tasks and leg work? They do this for the licensed real estate broker they are registered with, who in turn earns a small override for each sale. Lets say the agent and the broker split the 6% commission(now referred to as professional fee as real estate brokers are now under the PRC with the RESA Law) with 4% for the agent and 2% for the broker. The agent will do a lot of legwork but this will justify the additional 2% they will earn, which results in twice the earnings of what they usually get. You as the broker earn the 2% passive “residual” income. Do you think this idea of mine would work?

Devote time and effort in finding properties that generate cashflow – If you just focus on flipping properties, it would still be like a 9 to 5 existence because you will always have to flip a property to have cash coming in. If you invest for cashflow however, those small income streams in the form of rental income will eventually become as big, if not even bigger, than the income flipping can generate, as the number of rental properties increase.

The only difference is, if you reach your passive income monthly goal, you have a choice of stopping and yet the monthly cashflow still comes in. If you only have earned income, even if through real estate, you won’t really be out of the rat race.

Coming up next: Financial freedom and how it can be achieved through passive income from real estate investing

Now that you have a general idea of what passive income is, along with its advantages and disadvantages, I will next share my thoughts on what financial freedom is from my own perspective, and what it would take to become financially free through real estate investing.

I will also try to answer questions and statements like “Can it really be done?”, “Where do I start?”, and “In reality if it was easy, everyone would be doing it…”

See you next week for the second half about passive income which would be the series finale on the 3 types of income one can get through real estate investing.

*Click here to read the final part of this series!

To our success and financial freedom!

Jay Castillo

Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Mobile phone (Call/SMS): +639178843882
Follow me in twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Find us in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines facebook page

Text by Jay Castillo and Cherry Castillo. Copyright © 2010 All rights reserved.

PS. Are you a new visitor? Click here NOW to start learning more about foreclosure investing in the Philippines

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Passive income through real estate investing – the path to financial freedom (Part 1) is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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I have been so busy lately with the title transfer of a foreclosed property that I purchased and I realized that it would be better if I just outsourced the title transfer to someone else. The amount of time that I have already allocated for this could have been put to better use finding more income generating properties, among a number of other activities that are more worthwhile doing, which is why I don’t intend to spend more time with the title transfer.

Don’t get me wrong, handling the title transfer is very important for me and my tenant/buyer, and I also want to learn how this is done, which is why I tried to do this myself. However, with the amount of time and effort needed to complete this, it makes better sense to just let someone else do it for me.

Just yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon following up on some documents I needed and I drove more than a hundred kilometers in the process going back and forth from Makati to Antipolo.

Highest and best use of my time

Outsourcing the title transfer to a title company would free up my time and allow me to use it for its highest and best use. As real estate investors, the highest and best use of our time is to find more deals that would generate passive income and positive cashflow. I should always keep this in mind and focus!

Why do I need the title transferred to me?

I have already paid in full for this particular property of mine and my objective is to transfer the title of the said property from the bank to myself, in the shortest amount of time possible, so that my tenant/buyer can apply for a housing loan for it. You will notice that this is a double closing. This was the only option I had with the bank where I bought the foreclosed property from. Yes, this would mean double taxation but it is okay, I factored-in the taxes I am going to shoulder into my expenses and the numbers still made sense for this deal.

Transferring the title of the property

Just to give you an idea, transferring the title of the property to my name would require the following:

• Payment of Creditable withholding Tax – already done by the bank
• Payment of Documentary Stamps Tax – already done by me
• Payment of Transfer Tax
• Filing of Certificate Authorizing Registration or CAR at the BIR
• Registration/Transfer of Title
• Registration/Transfer of Tax Declaration

Looks easy but in reality, these tasks are very tedious and time consuming but if you are into real estate investing, you will have to do these sooner or later, unless you outsource it.  The tasks above will be done for me by the title company I hired, except for those that have already been done. I’ll update you all of the status of the title transfer in a month or two. Wish me luck!

To our success and financial freedom!

Jay Castillo

Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Mobile phone (Call/SMS): +639178843882
Follow me in twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Like this in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines facebook page

Text by Jay Castillo. Copyright © 2010 All rights reserved.

PS. Are you a new visitor? Click here NOW to start learning more about foreclosure investing in the Philippines

PPS. Don’t be the last to know, subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. Inbox getting full? Subscribe through my RSS Feed instead!

Time to outsource my title transfer is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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Get ready for the coolest price-offs this summer as Star Properties Inc, conducts another auction of foreclosed properties in the May 15, 2010 edition of The Star Auction 2010! The venue for this auction will be Max’s Star Mall in Mandaluyong City, Philippines. Registration starts at 9:00AM and the auction proper starts at 10:00AM. More details after the jump…

Show money

Show money of Php 10,000.00 cash or Manager’s Check per property payable to STAR ASSET MANAGEMENT ROPOAS, INC. is required to participate in the auction.

Payment  terms

Only 10% Downpayment is required with the balance payable up to 5 years at 15% fixed interest rate per annum. I wish they made the payment term up to 10 years to pay to attract real estate investors who intend to go for financing and have positive cashflow. With such a short payment term, it would be hard to find such deals unless investors looked at other means to finance their deals.

Knock out option

Knock out option is available where one only has to add 5% on top of the list price to reserve a property before the auction. This would avoid what usually happens where prices get higher and higher as bidders try to outbid each other. I’m sure however that a lot of people might find the additional 5% quite high as the knockout option for other auctions like some of those from Property Forum Philippines only require an additional one Peso (Php 1.00) on top of the list price.

Locations of foreclosed properties

The locations of the foreclosed properties for sale include the Greater Manila Area, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, and these include a mix of residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial, and mixed-use types of foreclosed properties .

They even have memorial lots but the payment terms for these are 10% Downpayment with the balance payable up to 6 months at 0% interest.

Just download the complete listing of foreclosed properties below for more details.

Click here to download the listing of foreclosed properties included in The Star Auction on May 15, 2010

Source: Manila Bulletin, May 2, 2010 edition, Page 4 of main section

If you are interested on any of the foreclosed properties on the list, please contact Star Properties Inc. directly using the contact details on the listing which you can download by clicking on the link/thumbnail above.

Disclosure: I am not accredited with Star Properties Inc. and I am just posting this listing as a public service to readers and subscribers of foreclosurephilippines.com. Do take note that if I do get accredited in the future, I may no longer be able to share listings of Star Properties like this, depending on the terms and conditions of accreditation, which I am evaluating at the moment.

The fine print

All properties are offered on an “As-is, Where-is” basis. Titles of properties are either under seller’s name or under various stages of consolidation in the seller’s name. Interested parties are therefore advised to check the title, the physical and legal condition of the property prior to the scheduled auction. Property details, prices, and terms are subject to change without prior notice. The seller reserves the right to pull-out any property anytime. Changes in prices are subject to the sole discretion of the seller.

Happy hunting!

To our success and financial freedom!

Jay Castillo

Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Mobile phone (Call/SMS): +639178843882
Follow me in twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Like this in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines facebook page

Text by Jay Castillo. Copyright © 2010 All rights reserved.

PS. Are you a new visitor? Click here NOW to start learning more about foreclosure investing in the Philippines

PPS. Don’t be the last to know, subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. Inbox getting full? Subscribe through my RSS Feed instead!

Star Properties Inc.'s "The Star Auction 2010!" slated on May 15 is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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During our lunch break at the office yesterday, I begged off from doing something which I have dreaded for the past 12 years in the corporate world, Christmas party presentations! You might be asking what the heck does this have to do with investing in foreclosures in the Philippines? Read on to find out.

This year it is going to be different
During this time of the year, most of us unlucky enough to be employed in a company who force employees to participate in Christmas party presentations that only cause undue stress and humiliation, dread the thought of being forced to go through it all over again. If some people want such activities then fine, let them volunteer for it, and spare those who don’t want to make a fool of themselves.

I really find it silly that people tolerate such a time wasting activity  during the time of year when people who really do work are busiest because of the reduced workdays and tighter deadlines, simply because it has been a tradition. I would rather have games and other really fun activities where people just need to attend the party and have fun, relax, and enjoy.  That’s what having a party is for, right?!

Since I have already decided to quit the corporate world (my last day is at the end of December 2009… yipee!), I said to myself that enough is enough and I did not attend our group’s practice for our Christmas party presentation that was to eat up half of my lunch break. Instead, I decided to visit the bank officer handling my account to pay for the fire insurance for a foreclosed property I recently purchased.

We always have a choice but…
Wait, before anyone of you thinks of quitting your jobs to start investing in real estate, bear in mind that I am at this point after more than 4 years worth of preparations and I already have income streams other than my earned income from my job. Besides, with or without my real estate investing activities, I can see that I really would have called it quits for a lot of reasons that I would rather not discuss here.

Whew, with that out of the way, let me continue by saying that although we always have a choice, there are times when making the choice is really more difficult. In my example above, it was easy for me to choose paying for the fire insurance for my property over practicing for a dance number where a forty year old like me will have to wear a mini-skirt and dance to the tune of “Nobody nobody but you” by Wonder Girls… such an unpleasant thought, definitely not my idea of having “fun”.

But what if you had to make a choice between your son’s first ever recital and a conference call with your counterparts from abroad. How about choosing between being with your wife on her birthday or to be in Singapore for a regional meeting or spending your birthday with your wife and son or be in an annual planning session… the list goes on and on. I had to make these difficult choices in the past. Not anymore…

Just what is time freedom and how do you get it?
My definition of time freedom is being able to spend your time freely to do what you want, when you want, and with who you want. I believe that time freedom is a by-product of having passive income streams, and a good example would be those from passive income generating properties.

How? Buy a foreclosed property with a good enough net operating income to produce positive cashflow, fix it up, rent it out or sell it through a lease option. Might sound easy but it’s not, keep in mind it took me four years to buy three foreclosed properties. However, if this will help me get time freedom, then I believe it is all worth it. Besides, although it is not that easy, it is definitely possible and is not as difficult as you think.

So the next time you feel like giving up on real estate investing, just watch a video of your Christmas party presentations and ask yourself “Do I really have to do this…?!”. It just might help you snap out of it. Merry Christmas everyone!

—

To our financial freedom!

Jay Castillo
Real Estate Investor
PRC Real Estate Broker License #: 3194
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Follow me in twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Become a Fan in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines fan page

Text by Jay Castillo. Copyright © 2008 – 2011 Jay Castillo. All rights reserved.

PS. If you are a new visitor, please start here to learn more about foreclosure investing in the Philippines.

PPS. If you feel that anyone else you know might benefit from this post, please do share this to them and don’t forget to subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. If your inbox is getting full, you may subscribe through my RSS Feed instead.

The importance of time freedom, one example why I want to be financially free is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

While I have said in the past that it would be great to buy a house and treat it as an investment, I want to take it a step further. What if instead of buying a house outright, one would first buy an income generating asset that would generate positive cashflow and help take care of the monthly amortizations of the house that one would then buy afterwards?

Just this morning I mentioned this idea to my wife and I said “Wouldn’t it be a great idea to buy an investment property that would be able to pay for the monthly amortizations of the house that we intend to live in?”

Call it coincidence but while I was driving to work,  while I was listening to an audio book entitled “You can choose to be rich”, I heard the author, Robert Kiyosaki, mention that one big difference between the rich and the middle class is the rich buy assets first and then they use the income from these income generating assets to buy their liabilities. At least that was how I understood what he said.

Furthermore, the middle class buy liabilities first and then hope that someday they will have the chance to buy income generating assets. Believe me when I say that it really is difficult to buy assets once you have already bought liabilities that don’t generate any income as you already have a big burden which comes in the form of those big monthly amortizations. Furthermore, this makes it really difficult to raise the capital needed  for the downpayment for income generating assets.

In effect, the scenario of buying liabilities first produces a situation that traps a lot of people in the rat race. They have no choice but to work hard to keep up with the monthly payments and they lose the opportunity to buy income generating assets first. This sounds like the situation we were in a few years ago. I guess this time around, a little delayed gratification is needed.

Am I making sense? What do you think?

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My vision – financial freedom for all!

Jay Castillo
Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Click here to contact me via E-mail
Mobile phone (Call/SMS): +639178843882
Follow me in twitter: http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Become a Fan in Facebook: Foreclosure Philippines fan page

Text by Jay Castillo. Copyright © 2009 All rights reserved.

PS. If you are a new visitor, please start here to learn more about foreclosure investing in the Philippines.

PPS. If you feel that anyone else you know might benefit from this post, please do share this to them and don’t forget to subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. If your inbox is getting full, you may subscribe through my RSS Feed instead.

Buy income generating assets first is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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